CN106576238A - Method and apparatus for establishing private communication between devices - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and devices for mutual communication between devices, and to computer programs enabling such communication. According to the invention, in a first device is controlled a transmitter module operable in a local radio communications network to transmit a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code. In at least one second device a receiver module is scanning said local radio communications network to detect said predetermined code. A contact network of the user of said at least second device is accessed, and the predetermined code is checked in the second device against the user's contact network for a match stored in the network profiles for the contacts. Then a validation key is fetched, that relates to a matching contact found in said contact network, and a connection establishment request containing the validation key is sent over said local radio communications networkfrom the second deviceto the first device. Thus the origin of the connection establishment request is validated in the first device.

Description

Method and apparatus for establishing private communication between devices

technical field

The present invention relates to a protocol for establishing a private communication setup. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for establishing and supporting private communications between two devices utilizing a radio communication network and a contact network with stored network profiles for individual contacts.

Background technique

Current online dating and social networking services are online-dominated and not easily integrated into users' daily interactions with the real world. In many known systems, users spend time using smart devices to broadcast and sift through myriad online social protocols instead of spending valuable time meeting friends, relatives or business contacts.

The problem of providing contact between end users of handheld devices or other smart devices is technically involved in the standardization organization 3GPP, which acts on the "proximity-based Sexual Services (ProSe)". The 3GPP specification for this ProSe discovery is based on the E-UTRA radio interface, and the ProSe application code using a globally unique ProSe application ID bound to the mobile network operator's core network. ProSe services are mobile operator focused services and will only work between users of different operators if the pair of operators has a service connection for the service and both provide the technical interface.

In addition to computer viruses and the like, security threats identified in ProSe communications include at least forged or replayed messages and eavesdropping on the content of messages, which may infect devices through software installation and malicious messages.

According to US Patent Application Publication No. 20130276140, there is known a system for electronically facilitating the exchange of information between social and business contacts using controlled access technology, where an authenticated token is used to control access to protected Information. Authentication tokens are used to provide relatively quick access to secure data and other resources in the service provider system, providing credentials (eg, username and password) for the token to be preloaded into the client device. A digital transaction token may be configured to provide evidence of a social or business contact or customer authorization of a business (eg, an event organizer, clubhouse, and/or hospital) to access a corresponding customer profile.

The transaction token can be embedded in the profile page code provided in the profile response. When the profile page code is received and loaded by the browser application, the transaction token is also loaded by the browser. Therefore, the transaction token can be maintained in the code of the profile page instead of being delivered separately. Accordingly, the wireless devices of the sender and receiver can exchange transaction tokens in a local wireless protocol, and the wireless devices are coupled together through the second wireless network. The device may communicate with the server via a cable or other physical connection to the PC, or through any form of wireless connection (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or WLAN (802.11)), either directly or through some intermediary (e.g., cellular network) to relay tokens or other information to the server. The remaining problem remains the need for a unique identifier (ID), which can be based on mobile device, name, address, billing information (if applicable), user name, profile information, photo, preferences, and friend names.

If two devices want to initiate and communicate directly through techniques available in the prior art, at least the following problems exist:

-Broadcast device or other identifying information that allows users to track;

- broadcast via network operators, which needs to be supported in some way;

- Requires extensive support from the operating system;

- A global approach to establishing proximity security associations may generally require a global public key infrastructure for user authentication, which is quite expensive. Alternatively it could be based on a shared key, but due to the number of combinations there could be very, very many symmetric keys.

In addition to arbitrary device ID information, the identity provided can be a network id, such as a WLAN SSID identity, a Bluetooth identity, or a social network authentication system, such as Facebook single sign-on.

Therefore, a globally working system is needed to establish secure local communications, but at the same time protect user integrity and location privacy by not broadcasting device identities. This means that a solution must actually be found that is not built around geographically localized and competing operators.

Contents of the invention

The present invention brings together simple radio interface physical layer L1 functions, serial codes and connections (eg social networks) to be used in combination to establish secure local communication that protects user privacy and has no risk of user traceability. The method of the present invention provides a simple and robust way to notify friends of availability and for discovering buddies, depending on short-range communication and social network public profile information.

The mobile network operator is not necessarily involved, but only support is required from a social networking service, of which there are many to choose from. This enables the method of the present invention to preserve privacy compared to methods requiring a device, identity or communication network ID.

According to the method of the invention, in a first device a transmitter module is controlled, which is operable in a local radio communication network to transmit a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code.

In at least one second device, a receiver module scans said local radio communication network to detect said predetermined code. A user's contact network of the at least second device is accessed, and the predetermined code is checked against the user's contact network in the second device for a match stored in the network profile for the contact. An authentication key is then retrieved, the authentication password being associated with a matching contact found in said contact network, and a connection establishment request containing the authentication key is sent from the second device to the first device via said local radio communication network. Accordingly, the origin of the connection establishment request is verified in the first device.

The authentication key may be stored in the contact's profile, or may be ad-hoc generated. The key can be used to send the key identifier to the first device, or one can put some parameters in the connection establishment request, so that the receiver at the first device can generate the same key, and verify the connection establishment request.

The local radio communication network used for sending and receiving the sequence of pulsed radio signals representing the predetermined code may be the same as or different from the preferred communication network through which the direct communication is established.

According to one embodiment, the predetermined code is Morse code. However, the present invention is in no way limited to Morse codes. The code was optimized for sending English characters over telegraph wires; such considerations are largely obsolete in today's world, and other priorities may suggest a different encoding system.

In a manner representing a predetermined code, the predetermined code can be generated according to one embodiment by varying the output signal of the transmitter module between an on and off state, or by modulating the output signal of the transmitter (preferably and simply by AM or FM) to generate predetermined codes, for example, Morse code is a binary code.

The contact network may be a centralized service for personal information storage and distribution, ie a social media network. Appropriate social media networks are for example or The main requirement is that users can store their own profile which is at least somewhat accessible to others and which can include a public key by which connections between users can be authenticated.

The local radio communication network used may be one or more of the following: Bluetooth, WLAN, WiFiDirect or LTE D2D. Other systems may exist and become standardized in the future. What is important for the purposes of the present invention is that a direct communication channel is available, ie no operator or other authority is involved.

According to another embodiment, the preferred communication network may be the Internet or a cellular network, or Bluetooth, WLAN, WiFiDirect or LTE D2D.

A user can store codes for his or her network contacts in advance, whereby only such stored codes can be matched and further processed. In addition, the network profile of the network contact may contain stored beacon information indicating when the contact sent his or her subscription code. This will allow the listening user to time the sending of connection establishment requests, for example, if the listening user wants to connect as soon as the sending network connection becomes available.

An inventive sending device comprising: at least one processing core; at least one memory including computer program code; and at least one communication transceiver module operable in at least one local radio communication network. The processing core, memory and computer program code are configured such that the apparatus at least:

controlling a radio transmitter in the transceiver module to transmit a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code identifying a user of the apparatus to a listening external device via a local radio communication network;

receiving a connection establishment request from at least one listening external device through a receiver in the transceiver module, the request including an authentication key from a user of the listening external device, wherein the authentication key is identical to that in the external device associated with the user profile of the user of the device in the user's contact network and matched with said transmitted predetermined code;

Authenticating the origin of the connection establishment request and opening a direct communication channel to the at least one listening external device in the preferred radio communication network.

An inventive listening device comprising: at least one processing core; at least one memory including computer program code; and at least one communication transceiver module operable in at least one local radio communication network. The processing core, memory and computer program code are configured such that the apparatus at least:

scanning a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code via a receiver in said communication transceiver module through a local radio communication network;

receiving from at least one transmitting external device a sequence of radio signal pulses representing said predetermined code identifying a user of said transmitting external device;

matching said user's identity encoded in said received predetermined code with contact identities stored in a user profile of a contact network within said device;

Obtaining an authentication key related to the user of the sending external device, and using the authentication key to send a connection establishment request to the sending external device;

Validation of the connection establishment request is received from the sending external device and a direct communication channel is opened to the sending external device in the preferred communication network.

It should be noted that the expressions "transmitting device", "transmitting external device", "listening external device", and "listening device" are concepts for clarity purposes. Both devices described may be transceivers with equal two-way communication capabilities over the chosen network, but the concepts "sending device" and "sending external device" are used here to describe the user's ability to send out his or her code to Devices for others to scan and connect to, while the concepts "listener" and "listener external device" are used to support devices that scan such codes.

The present invention also relates to a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of computer-readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause an apparatus to at least:

controlling the radio transmitter to transmit a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code identifying the user of the device to a listening external device via the local radio communication network;

Receiving a connection establishment request from at least one listening external device via a receiver, the request comprising an authentication key from a user of the listening external device, wherein the authentication key is identical to a contact network of the user of the listening external device the user profile of the user of the device is associated and matched with the transmitted predetermined code;

Authenticating the origin of the connection establishment request and opening a direct communication channel to the at least one listening external device in the preferred radio communication network.

Finally, the present invention also relates to a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of computer-readable instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause an apparatus to at least:

Scanning a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code via a receiver through a local radio communication network;

receiving from at least one transmitting external device a sequence of radio signal pulses representing said predetermined code identifying a user of said transmitting external device;

matching the user's identity encoded in said received predetermined code with contact identities stored in a user profile of a contact network within said device;

Obtaining an authentication key related to the user of the sending external device, and using the authentication key to send a connection establishment request to the sending external device;

Validation of the connection establishment request is received from the sending external device and a direct communication channel is opened to the sending external device in the preferred communication network.

An embodiment of the invention relating to a non-transitory computer readable medium may be a computer program in the form of an API (Application Programming Interface), which when run by, for example, a processing core in a mobile device, will support direct access from the application to the short range radio module , for the purpose of the present invention enables an application to control a transceiver of a local radio communication network.

industrial application

The present invention is industrially applicable in the telecommunications industry and may also readily find useful application in the entertainment and gaming industries.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 shows an exemplary contact web service that can be used in the present invention;

Figure 2 shows a user searching for another user's communication setup attempt;

Figure 3 shows a communication setup attempt where a user decides he wants to check if any of his friends are around;

Figure 4 illustrates an example apparatus capable of supporting at least some embodiments of the present invention.

detailed description

Referring to Figure 1, an example of a contact web service 10 is shown. The contact network can be mostly a social network for friends, like facebook etc., but it can also be an enterprise network or another closed group of users with a central database. This closed user grouping could be created for customers in a shopping mall or office park, where businesses advertise their "Morse codes" on their social network profiles for customers to use to find stores (i.e., indoor location services) and possibly supply. A central database included in the service 10 hosts the contact profiles of users. The backbone of the connection or social network is the Internet 11, or any other computer interconnected network capable of implementing TCP/IP-like protocols and transports.

The contact network service 10 has in its database a list 12 of subscribers, each of which may have an OTA (over the air) discovery package 13, which supports detection of the user by his or her friends in a social networking environment, as described in connection with FIG. 2 of. Here, the key for an exemplary user is User1 encoded in Morse code. The preferred radio communication network for local area connection here is Bluetooth (BT-LE), but as a backup, an alternative radio communication network (Wi-FI) is also given when Bluetooth is not available at the location. The local communication link may be based on Wi-Fi Direct, WLAN, Bluetooth or LTE D2D, or any other suitable telemetry technology available in the device. The technical choices a user makes in his or her profile will of course depend on the device used, the infrastructure of the environment, and the user's preferences.

Other information may include the time at which User Userl announced his or her availability for an OTA contact attempt. This can be organized in beacon periods for energy saving purposes. Beacons can use the time of day as a common reference for all users, and define the repeating start time and duration of the active beacon duty cycle. Through this exchange of information (eg, during an earlier communication between the parties), the discovery device knows in advance when to contact User1 and can set the discovery parameters to optimal power and time for User1.

OTA packaging is added to social networking profiles to enable wireless discovery of services. Profile information may include the user's current discovery status, ie, whether the user is discoverable or not. Other states may exist depending on the user's configuration and preferences. For example, if a user has friends of different groups or belongs to a different communication, the status may refer to limited discovery that the user can only be discovered by a specific group. Whenever the user turns their local link beacons on or off, an application running in the device can be configured to update the discovery status in the profile accordingly. Additionally, the amount and detail of information disclosed in the OTA discovery package 13 may vary between groups, and full details may only be available to friends. It depends on the settings available in Contacts or Social Networks.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the communication setup attempt of the present invention is depicted through a simplified workflow. At 20, the listening User2 wants to check if his/her friend User1 is available for chatting. At 21, User2 triggers his social networking service application (app) in his mobile device to fetch Userl's OTA discovery package 13 . The information in a user profile related to his discoveries is called a discovery package. At 22, the app activates the mobile device's BT-LE module to search for a beacon sending User1's Morse code. If User1 is sending, he or she is found at 25. If at 23 User1 is not transmitting or is not within range of the preferred radio communication network, then User1 is not found. If User1 reduces contact at this time, he or she cannot be found at 24 either.

In more detail, the listening User2 uses his device to scan for Morse signatures over one (or more) radio communication networks. User2 checks the received Morse signature against his social network records, for which he is logged on to his social network. User2 finds out that one of his friends (User1) uses eg Morse name XYZ, and gets User1's public key from his social network (eg facebook). User2 then sends a connection establishment request to User1, which is signed with User1's public key. User1 can then use his private key to authenticate the connection establishment request. To avoid man-in-the-middle attacks, User1 can also verify User2's answer with his friend User2's public key.

Encryption keys can be used as described above to secure the communication link between the two devices. Alternatively, it may also be used only for an initial first authentication, and then the devices may directly exchange security keys, eg via the Diffie-Hellmann key exchange protocol or other similar means.

Any user can advertise the Morse code to his friends or selected groups of friends, and said friends then have the codes immediately available. The code may be temporary and automatically expire at a set time, for example, to protect the user from stalking and/or malicious attacks on social networking accounts. The new temporary Morse code needs to be updated in the social network and can then be picked up by friends. The user can also cache his friend's Morse codes in his device's memory, including arbitrary code expiration information, to avoid frequent network setups to check already discovered codes. Thus only new or updated codes need to be checked.

In another embodiment, User2 may first check the code, and then have his device's local connection receiver only used to find the selected code. With this approach, detected Morse codes are ignored instead of those cached in memory. In practice, this can be achieved by storing the codes of several contacts in the device's memory in advance, whereby only the stored codes are checked for matching against User2's personal network contacts.

Referring now to FIG. 3 , the opposite situation from User1's point of view is explained, where the sending User1 decides at 30 to check if any of his friends are around. At 31 he runs a service application (app) in his device which activates the device's BT-LE module to send his Morse code XYZ. Listens for User2's proximity and responds at 32 by sending a connection request signed and authenticated with Userl's public key. User1 can now choose to verify the code and take any action 33, 34 with the identified User2, or at 35 not verify the public key with his private key since he does not know User2.

Figure 4 illustrates an example apparatus capable of supporting at least some embodiments of the present invention. A device 40 is shown, which may comprise, for example, a mobile communication device such as a smartphone. Included in device 40 is a processor 41 , which may include, for example, a single-core processor including one processing core or a multi-core processor including more than one processing core. For example, processor 41 may include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. Processor 41 may include more than one processor. The processing core may include, for example, a Cortex-A8 processing core manufactured by Intel Corporation or a Brisbane processing core manufactured by Advanced MicroDevices Corporation. Processor 41 may include at least one application specific integrated circuit ASIC. Processor 41 may include at least one Field Programmable Gate Array FPGA. Processor 41 may be means for performing method steps in device 40 . Processor 41 may be means for performing method steps in device 40 . Processor 41 may be configured at least in part by computer instructions to perform actions.

Device 40 may include a separate memory unit 42, which may include random access memory and/or persistent memory. Memory 42 may include at least one RAM chip. Memory 42 may comprise, for example, magnetic, optical and/or holographic memory. Memory 42 is at least partially accessible to processor 41 and may be at least in part storage of computer instructions that processor 41 is configured to execute. When computer instructions configured to cause the processor 41 to perform specific actions are stored in the memory 42, and the device 40 as a whole is configured to run under the guidance of the processor 41 using the computer instructions from the memory 42, the processor 41 and/or At least one processing core thereof may be considered configured to perform said particular action.

The device 40 has a transceiver unit 46 comprising a transmitter 43 and a receiver 44 . Transmitter 43 and receiver 44 are configured to transmit and receive information, respectively, according to at least one cellular or non-cellular standard. Transmitter 43 may include more than one transmitter. Receiver 44 may include more than one receiver. The transmitter 43 and/or the receiver 44 may be configured, for example, according to Global System for Mobile Communications GSM, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access WCDMA, Long Term Evolution LTE, IS-95, Wireless Local Area Network WLAN, Ethernet and/or Global Interoperability for Microwave Access WiMAX standard to operate.

The device 40 also includes a short-range radio communication transceiver 45 . The transceiver 45 supports at least one such technology, eg Bluetooth, WLAN, Wi-Fi Direct, LTE D2D, Wibee or similar.

Device 40 typically includes a user interface (not shown). The user interface (UI) may comprise at least one of: a display, a keyboard, a touch screen, a vibrator arranged to signal the user by causing the device 40 to vibrate, a speaker and a microphone. The user is able to operate the device 40 via the UI, for example, to receive an incoming phone call, make a phone call or video call, browse the Internet, manage data stored in the memory 42 or on the cloud via the transmitter 43 and receiver 44 or via an NFC transceiver 45 to access digital files, and/or play games.

The device 40 may also be arranged to accept a Subscriber Identity Module (not shown), such as a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card installable within the device 40 . Device 40 may include other devices not shown in FIG. 4, such as at least one digital video camera.

The processor 41 may be equipped with a transmitter arranged to output information from the processor 41 to other devices comprised in the device 40 via electrical leads inside the device 40 . Such a transmitter may comprise a serial bus transmitter arranged, for example, to output information via at least one electrical lead to the memory 42 for storage therein. Instead of a serial bus, the transmitter may include a parallel bus transmitter. Similarly, processor 41 may comprise a receiver arranged to receive information within processor 41 from other devices contained within device 40 via electrical leads within device 40 . Such a receiver may comprise a serial bus receiver arranged, for example, to receive information from a receiver 44 via at least one electrical lead for processing in the processor 41 . Instead of a serial bus, the receiver may include a parallel bus receiver.

Processor 41 , memory 42 , transmitter 43 , receiver 44 , transceiver 45 , and/or any other module or device may be interconnected by electrical wires inside device 40 in a number of different ways. For example, each of the aforementioned devices may be individually connected to a main bus within device 40 to allow the devices to exchange information. However, as understood by those skilled in the art, this is only an example and depending on the embodiment, various ways of interconnecting at least two of the above devices may be chosen without departing from the scope of the present invention.

First, the user needs to install an application layer software application 47 (app) into the communication device 40 of FIG. 4 . App 47, of course, physically resides within memory unit 42 and runs within processor 41, but is depicted in Figure 4 for clarity. The App 47 , which may be a computer program in the form of an API, has the authority to control the local radio communication transceiver module 45 of the device, for example by switching its transmitter transmitting the L1 carrier on or off. When the user wants to be discovered by his friends, at least the transmitter part of the local radio communication transceiver module 45 needs to terminate all other tasks, after which the app 47 starts switching the transmitter on or off according to a predetermined sequence pattern. In the case of Morse code, the sequence of code "user1" could be as follows:

Short Close-Open-Short Close-Open-Long Close/Short Close-Open-Short Close-Open-Short Close/Short Close/Short Close-Open-Long Close-Open-Short Close/Short Close-Open-Long Close- Open-Long Close-Open-Long Close-Open-Long Close/.

In this sequence, short close=dot, long close=dash, open=separator. A different separator is required between letters, here the above slash "/" can be replaced by "long open" or "very long close".

Here L1 means that the physical layer of the local radio communication network is used; all network technologies and protocols have their own standardized layers and it is not within the scope of the present invention to present these in arbitrary detail. For example, the Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI) characterizes and standardizes the internal functionality of a communication system by partitioning it into abstraction layers. The model is a product of the Open Systems Interconnection project of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), maintained by the recognition ISO/IEC 7498-1.

A software application using a device according to the invention needs access to the physical layer L1 of the network used, but a person skilled in the art is able to design software that can manipulate the layers of the network protocol so that it serves the purpose of the SW application in question.

Obviously, within the scope of the invention, other variants can be used to encode such physical layer L1 communication, for example, where "close" is a delimiter mark and the length of the "open" sequence corresponds to a dot or a dash. In addition, other serial codes than Morse code may be equally useful, since in fact the user of the device may not need to know which code he himself uses. The user may only need to key in the desired alphanumeric code name, which will then be converted to Morse or some other code.

In another more advanced embodiment, Morse code or some other type of sequential code could be used to modulate the L1 carrier into a simple PCM code, where dots, dashes and separators would have their own codewords. This may be more power efficient than switching the carrier on and off, but on the other hand, may require more advanced inner layer communication within the mobile device.

It is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments of the invention are not limited to the particular systems, process steps, or components disclosed herein, but extend to equivalents thereof as would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the relevant art. It is also to be understood that terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting.

Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places in this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

As used herein, multiple items, structural elements, components and/or systems may be present in a common listing for convenience. However, these lists should be construed as if each member of the list were individually identified as a separate and unique member. Thus, no individual member of such list should be construed as an equivalent of virtually any other member of the same list solely on the basis of their presence in a common grouping and not to the contrary. In addition, various embodiments and examples of the present invention may be referred to herein along with substitutions for various components thereof. It is understood that in practice such embodiments, examples and substitutions are not to be construed as equivalents to each other, but are considered as separate and independent representations of the invention.

Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the ensuing description, numerous specific details are provided to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, systems, or the like. In other instances, well-known structures or operations have not been shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.

While the foregoing examples have shown the principles of the invention in one or more particular applications, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form, use and details of implementation may be made without exercising the inventive capacity , and without departing from the principles and concepts of the present invention. Accordingly, it is not intended that the invention be limited, except by the claims set forth hereinafter.

Claims (30)

1. A method for communicating between devices, comprising the steps of: controlling in the first device a transmitter module operable in the local radio communication network to transmit a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code; scanning said local radio communication network to detect said predetermined code by means of a receiver module in at least one second device; accessing, through the at least one second device, a contact network of a user of the at least second device; checking said predetermined code against a network of contacts of the user in said at least one second device for a match stored in a network profile for the contact; obtaining at least an authentication key associated with a matching contact found in said network of contacts; sending a connection establishment request from said at least one second device to said first device over said local radio communication network using at least said authentication key; The origin of the connection establishment request is authenticated in the first device. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein verification of the connection establishment request opens a direct communication channel between the first and second devices in a preferred communication network. 3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the network of contacts is a centralized service for storage and distribution of personal information. 4. A method according to claim 1 , 2 or 3, wherein the local radio communication network is selected from one or more of: Bluetooth, WLAN, WiFi Direct or LTE D2D. 5. The method of any one of claims 1-4, wherein the preferred communication network is the Internet. 6. The method of any of claims 1-4, wherein the preferred communication network is a cellular network. 7. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein the preferred communication network is one of: Bluetooth, WLAN, WiFi Direct or LTE D2D. 8. The method according to any one of claims 1-7, wherein predetermined codes for a plurality of contacts are stored in the second device in advance, whereby only the stored codes are checked for use in the second device. match in the device. 9. The method according to any one of claims 1-8, wherein the time at which the contact sent the sequence of pulses representing the predetermined code of the user is stored as beacon information in the network profile of the network contact, The beacon information is stored in the second device for timing sending of the connection establishment request. 10. A method according to any one of claims 1-9, wherein said radio representing said predetermined code is generated by varying an output signal of said transmitter module representing said predetermined code between an on and off state. signal pulse sequence. 11. A method according to any one of claims 1-9, wherein said radio representing said predetermined code is generated by modulating an output signal of said transmitter to alternate between states as required by said predetermined code. signal pulse sequence. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the radio signal pulse train is amplitude modulated. 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the radio signal pulse train is frequency modulated. 14. A method according to any one of claims 1-13, wherein the radio signal pulse sequence comprises a Morse code sequence. 15. An apparatus comprising: at least one processing core; at least one memory comprising computer program code; and at least one communication transceiver module capable of operating in at least one local radio communication network; said at least one memory and computer program Code configured to run through at least one processing core such that the means at least: controlling a radio transmitter in said transceiver module to transmit a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code identifying a user of said apparatus to a listening external device via a local radio communications network; Receive a connection establishment request from at least one listening external device through a receiver in the transceiver module, the connection establishment request including an authentication key from a user of the listening external device, wherein the authentication key is the same as in the the user profile of the user of said device in the contact network of the user of the external device is correlated and matched with said transmitted predetermined code; Authenticating the origin of the connection establishment request and opening a direct communication channel to the at least one listening external device in the preferred radio communication network. 16. An apparatus comprising: at least one processing core; at least one memory comprising computer program code; and at least one communication transceiver module capable of operating in at least one local radio communication network; said at least one memory and computer program Code configured to run through at least one processing core such that the means at least: scanning a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code through a local radio communication network via a receiver in said communication transceiver module; receiving from at least one transmitting external device a sequence of radio signal pulses representing said predetermined code identifying a user of said transmitting external device; matching said user's identity encoded in said received predetermined code with contact identities stored in said device in a user profile of a contact network; Obtaining an authentication key related to the user of the sending external device, and using the authentication key to send a connection establishment request to the sending external device; Validation of the connection establishment request is received from the sending external device and a direct communication channel is opened to the sending external device in the preferred communication network. 17. Apparatus according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code is a Morse code. 18. The apparatus of any one of claims 15-17, wherein the contact network is a centralized service for storage and distribution of personal information. 19. The apparatus according to any one of claims 15-18, wherein the local radio communication network is selected from one or more of: Bluetooth, WLAN, WiFi Direct or LTE D2D. 20. The apparatus according to any one of claims 15-19, wherein the preferred communication network is the Internet. 21. The apparatus according to any one of claims 15-19, wherein the preferred communication network is a cellular network. 22. The apparatus according to any of claims 15-19, wherein the preferred communication network is one of: Bluetooth, WLAN, WiFi Direct or LTE D2D. 23. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code is generated by varying an output signal of the transmitter between on and off states. 24. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code is generated by modulating an output signal of the transmitter to alternate between states as required by the predetermined code. 25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the radio signal pulse train is amplitude modulated. 26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the radio signal pulse train is frequency modulated. 27. The device according to any one of claims 16-22, wherein said sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code for said contact is stored in said at least one memory in advance, so as to limit the code to Stored codes match. 28. A computer program for performing the method according to claims 1-14 in an apparatus according to claims 15-27. 29. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a set of computer readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause an apparatus to at least: controlling the radio transmitter to transmit a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code identifying the user of said device to a listening external device via the local radio communication network; Receiving a connection establishment request from at least one listening external device through a receiver, the connection establishment request including an authentication key from a user of said listening external device, wherein said authentication key is associated with a contact network of the user of said listening external device correlating with the user profile of the user of said device in said device and matching said transmitted predetermined code; Authenticating the origin of the connection establishment request and opening a direct communication channel to the at least one listening external device in the preferred radio communication network. 30. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a set of computer readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause an apparatus to at least: Scanning a sequence of radio signal pulses representing a predetermined code via a receiver through a local radio communication network; receiving from at least one transmitting external device a sequence of radio signal pulses representing said predetermined code identifying a user of said transmitting external device; matching the identity of the user encoded in said received predetermined code with the identity of a contact stored in said device in a user profile of a contact network; Obtaining an authentication key related to the user of the sending external device, and using the authentication key to send a connection establishment request to the sending external device; Validation of the connection establishment request is received from the sending external device and a direct communication channel is opened to the sending external device in the preferred communication network.